Tag: atlanta

Let’s get one thing out of the way — the greater Atlanta area in one of the weakest golf markets of all major American cities. Which is ironic because, for many people, Georgia represents a very specific type of American golf ideal. Most of that feeling, of course, is tethered to the fantasy of Augusta National. It isn’t so…

Debates regarding the best golf in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia typically revolve around tier 2 and 3 courses, as general consensus exists about the clubs there that are truly elite. Not so Atlanta. Once past Peachtree Golf Club, widely considered no. 1 by knowledgable players and panels (including me), the conversation about what’s good in Atlanta quickly devolves…

In this episode, architect Bill Bergin and Derek Duncan catch up and discuss a wide array of subjects including Bill’s recent and upcoming re-workings of several historic clubs, WWSRD (what would Seth Raynor do?), keeping pace with Bob Tway and the northwest Atlanta high school golf scene, going low at St. Andrews, Bill’s top 3 Atlanta…

Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Club, the “permanent” site of the TOUR Championship, is not unlike a Marvel Comics superhero. Its been cast into a role it had no intention of playing, resurrected from a lonely downward fate by powerful outside forces, refurbished to be put to use for the greater “good” fighting encroaching evils and blights. This hero has…

If I had just one round to play and it had to be in the greater Atlanta area, with no access to private clubs, I’d probably take it at Cobblestone. The land is a paradox — it’s scenic with a lot of shoreline along Lake Acworth, but everywhere away from the water is steep, wooded…

The Frog was easily one of the top two or three public venues in the greater Atlanta area until a few years ago when a large multi-club organization acquired it and put into mostly private rotation. I haven’t met too many people who enjoy driving long distances through heavy traffic to play disjointed, real…

The design at Mystery Valley, near Stone Mountain about 30 minutes east of Atlanta, is attributed to Dick Wilson but I suspect his then-associate Joe Lee is responsible for pretty much all of this course. After a struggle with his health and alcoholism, Wilson died in 1965, a year before Mystery Valley officially opened, and Lee and Robert Von Hagge…